If there’s anyone who knows about high school bullying, and surviving it, it’s Mississippi’s Constance McMillen, who was tormented by her high school administrators and classmates who tried to keep her from attending prom with her girlfriend. And yes, she too thought about killing herself.

Reflecting on the rash of gay teens killing themselves, Constance says she also had suicidal thoughts, she tells the AP, “but I never really considered it to the point where I almost did it .Everybody thinks about it when times get hard.”

Constance wasn’t viciously tormented until the prom scandal broke, when school officials decided to cancel prom (and help parents host a private one) rather than let Constance come with a same-sex date: “I went through a lot of harassment and bullying after the lawsuit, and I realized how bad it felt being in that position,” she said. “It seems like gay students catch a lot. It’s already a rough time in high school. Everybody wants to be accepted. The family’s acceptance is 100 times more important than people they go to school with. Whenever their family doesn’t accept them, they feel like nobody’s going to.”